Joshua Sofaer (UK): The Monologue Machine
For a period of up to one and half hours, performance artist Joshua Sofaer will improvise characters from a list of categories randomly supplied by a computer software package. There are 24,192 possible formations that the Monologue Machine can offer; but no one knows which it will select!
As well as instructing the performer as to the gender, age, emotion and content of the improvisation, The Monologue Machine also proscribes the language, from the list: American, Arabic, English, French, German, Greek, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin, Russian, and Spanish. Just like the characters themselves, the languages are fake.
The performance is constituted as a series of tasks and challenges to the performer; the audience is free to come and go as they please. Monologue Machine addresses the role of language in trans-national relations, the perception of cultural stereotypes and the adaptability or virtuosity of the performer. (Software developed by Carl Reynolds, Middlesex University, London)
Joshua Sofaer (UK)
Joshua Sofaer is a live artist, writer, educator and Research Fellow at ResCen, Centre for Research into Creation in the Performing Arts based at Middlesex University. Interested in the boundaries between the academy and professional practice, Joshua makes work in a variety of different contexts, which include traditional art spaces, alternative galleries and nightclubs, both nationally and internationally. Recent projects include O What is Live Art? an infotainment shown at Tate Modern as part of Live Culture in 2003 and screened on Channel 4 as part of the Art Show. In July 2005 he presented Scavengers, a scavenger hunt and exhibition, at Tate Modern in London.